


So Not Good at This

by preux



Category: The West Wing, West Wing
Genre: F/M, Inner Dialogue, San Andreo, canoodling, nuclear accident
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-18
Updated: 2013-02-18
Packaged: 2017-11-26 05:22:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/647019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/preux/pseuds/preux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will's inner dialogue.  Set during Season Seven San Andreo crisis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So Not Good at This

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sarken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarken/gifts).



> Misread a prompt and wrote a fic for the wrong 'Will'

“Will!” Lights flashed everywhere, and Will Bailey had nothing to say.  All he needed to do for the next minutes was to keep talking in a calm, measured, voice, saying as little as possible.  This would be easy because he really knew very little, and even easier because he had gotten almost no sleep the night before.

Will never understood why he didn’t gasp and flinch every time a camera flashed. 

 _Something he had been born with_ , he supposed. 

 

_****_

A few minutes earlier, he had collected his thoughts as he went to the podium.

_Kidnapped. OK, not exactly Robert Louis Stevenson, but still melodramatic. Maybe more melodramatic. CJ had been a total mess, holding herself together just barely._

_Plucked from the relative safety and calm waters of the Vice President’s office and plunked into the maelstrom of the White House press room--him, not CJ. And he had thought the secret military space shuttle was devoid of all humor.  If only there was some type of humor to be derived from a nuclear accident. Not so much._

_Who said that ignorance is bliss?  Well, they were wrong._

It was some protection, however.  Will had no idea what was really going on.  And he didn’t want to know.

_****_

Will put on the blank face. The one he was glad he had to put on when he saw Kate Harper in the hallway.  He’d been having to think of Arnold Vinick in his underwear to keep his arousal from showing.  Who would have thought that a nice, liberal boy like him—ok, a tough-as-nails liberal boy—could have fallen for a conservative, militaristic young honey like Kate?

 _Long cool glass of water, curvalicious. Yum._   

But that was a thought for another time and it did not enter his mind while he stood behind the podium.

 _Much_.

“How do we know that White House is not withholding information?” Someone demanded.  All the other reporters nodded and made noises of agreement.

 _The White House cannot provide unlimited information to the news media during a national crisis if it thinks the news media will foment panic.  That's how it works. Walt f*cking Disney never had to put up with this, and the man had hired Nazi employees, actual Nazi employees, to work on nuclear power.  Probably not the right time to bring up the creator of The Mouse. Maybe it wasn’t really Verner von Braun’s fault anyway._

“Will! We need to know.”

 _Someone is going to die today, maybe because of you. And you_ need _to know?_    _Need. To. Know. The damned, f*cking hubris._

“Ask me and I will find out.”

“Will!  Will!”  He pointed at random into the crowd.

“Senator Vinick said that the White House was responsible for the crisis.  Any response?” Will had seen the footage.  Arnold Vinick was upset, certainly, not holding himself as well as usual.  His presidential campaign, his life of service, his entire legacy were all on the line and he misspoke, then caught himself. Now the press were all over it like a sea of cheap suits.

 Vinick was right, of course.  The standards and inspections were out of his purview and no one had died from the power plant in twenty-five years.  Maybe the inspections were not good enough. 

 _But we all need to blame someone,_ and it was the job of the press to do this.  No one understood why, least of all the press. And the senator was still reeling, as everyone must be reeling, under the weight of the war in Kazakhstan.  No matter what happened in the presidential race, Vinick’s promises and plans were ruined to some extent.

 _The hubris. Wait._ He’d thought that already.

 _Watergate.  That’s it.  Damned Watergate._ Something was unsatisfactory about this, though.  All so cliche.  _No—at least I am not helping choose a wedding dress for a pregnant White House bride._

_And Vinick. You had to feel for the guy.  Even if you planned to smash him, make him want to change his name, take him to the cleaners and devastate him, wipe him out, humiliate him.…_

Will mentally shook himself.  The _Chess_ soundtrack had stormed through his brain as it had every time he saw an unspoken battle.  

 _So Cold War._   He'd have to stop thinking about Walt Disney. 

Will staggered out of the pressroom and indulged in some hubris of his own.  He boasted of his ignorance, complained about it.  C. J. understood.  Of course it was easier to ‘withhold’ information you lacked. C.J. closed the door in his face and he wandered back to his office.

_Arnold Vinick.  You had to respect the man.  Twenty-five years of service to his country.  Innumerable bills passed, supported, refined.  Well, not innumerable.  He could look up the number. He should know it. Reluctance to get in bed with the nutty right.  Overall, not so bad.  Of course, he could never tell Kate._

_How would Walt Disney have dealt with this and the secret space shuttle anyway?  He would have animated a panda._

_****_

That night, he and Kate tangled together, naked and panting and sweaty. She was so beautiful, and exciting, between the sheets, so awkward at work the next day.  He loved it, felt himself starting to love her.

“Will,” she said, voice throatier than usual, poking his chest with a finger. “Inquiring minds need to know.”

He let a gentle amusement creep into his tone. “Need to know?”

“Yes, we have a right to know, Will.”

He chuckled. “And what do we have a right to know?”

“Would you like another go?”

Will swallowed. “Oh yes.”

 


End file.
